Tag Archives: kids in London

Cholderton Charlie’s Farm is in Salisbury, Wiltshire, near Stonehenge between Andover and Amesbury. We were unlucky with the weather during our visit in Easter: cloudy and windy with a few outbreaks of showery rain.

Everyone we met at the farm was friendly, from the girl at the entrance to the farm operators and the waiters at the cafe. The farm has a wide open layout that allows you to see most of it as you walk into.

There is a complete schedule of tractor tours and children can walk around ducks and hens and hold rabbits in turns attended by a patient farmer.

In the cafe they serve hot soup and simple sandwiches. There is no “organic” or “eco-friendly” labels or claims anywhere. This is a farm resembling a production one that delivers what is says on the tin: a fun and educational day out.

There is a very good swimming pool in Swiss Cottage. It is in the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre, Adelaide Road, NW3 3NF. The premises are managed by GLL in behalf of the Camden council.

The teaching pool is perfect for toddlers. It has been closed for the most of September and all October so far. The company managing the premises does not offer updates about the closure of the teaching swimming pools. To inquiry about updates, you may phone 020 7974 2012, option 9 to speak with an operator.

This is no ordinary installation. The visitors are expected to play not a music instrument but a whole building. An old organ in the middle on the huge roundhouse connects to all the pillars of the dome. The sounds of the organ are in fact emitted by the structure of the building.

I was surprised to arrive at the Roundhouse on the first day of the interactive sound installation and find a short queue waiting to sit at the organ and “play the building“.

The crowd at midday was composed by some “culturally active” and straightforward arty visitors and a few parents with kids. The sound itself didn’t impress my 2 years old son. The keyboard of the organ is divided in three sections: motor, pipes and percussion. The sounds are too grave, dissonant and too metallic and acute respectively. The result is a bit of an resonating cacophony, even when the building is played by musicians.

The stage is however spectacular and dramatic. The organ looked like the brain of a crazy scientist connected to the building by the multicoloured axons of its neurons.

Thank you David Byrne for the experience. The installation is hosted by the Arts Council and Camden for the experience.

There is a delightful little garden in St. Johns Wood, North West London.

One of its boundaries is the noisy Wellington Road, near the glass-covered Park Plaza Sherlock HolmesHotel in London and the Lord’s Cricket ground. The address of the former burial is Wellington Place, Wellington Road, NW8 7PF.

The St. Johns Wood burial ground dates from 1807. It covered an area of two and a half hectares (six acres). The burial ground was used from until 1855 when the St. Marylebone Cemetery at East Finchley was opened. There are thought to be 50,000 graves here.